AA / Bamako / Amarana Maiga
The United Nations (UN) has declared that “the 49 Ivorian soldiers arrested on Sunday in Bamako are not national elements supporting the contingents of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)”. .
The information was announced by Farhan Haq, spokesman for the UN.
“The Ivorian troops do not belong to the Minusma forces. A request from Côte d’Ivoire to deploy national support elements was approved in 2019. However, no troops have been deployed under this convention since then. We strongly encourage the two countries to work together to resolve the situation and allow the release of the detained troops,” the same source stressed.
Farhan Haq confirmed that “these men do not have the status of national support elements, as stipulated by the Ivorian National Security Council on Tuesday”.
On Wednesday, the army staff of Côte d’Ivoire provided details on the presence of its 49 soldiers arrested at Bamako airport.
He notably indicated that “the contingent arrested is indeed on an official mission in Mali as part of the operations of the United Nations peacekeeping mission (the Minusma)”.
Meeting on Tuesday in the National Security Council, under the chairmanship of the Head of State, Alassane Ouattara, the Ivorian authorities called on those of Mali to “release, without delay” the 49 Ivorian soldiers “unjustly arrested”, Sunday in Bamako.
The press release underlines that “these soldiers are regularly registered in the workforce of the Ivorian Army and were in Mali, within the framework of the operations of the National Support Elements (NSE)”.
The Transitional Government of Mali, for its part, qualified these Ivorian soldiers as mercenaries as defined by the OAU Convention on the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga spokesman for the government indicated that following interrogations “the real profession of the soldiers, including regarding thirty special forces, was for the most part concealed. On the majority of passports the professions listed were as follows: students, drivers, masons, mechanics, saleswomen, electricians, security guards, painters, etc.
Maiga also declared that the forty-nine (49) Ivorian soldiers arrested will be made available to the competent judicial authorities.
The Malian Government also decided on Thursday to suspend all rotations of military and police contingents of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma), including those already scheduled or announced, and this, for reasons of national security.
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